Intro To Me
Hello! This is my first post and I thought I’d start out with an introduction. I’m EM Beck, and I write genre fiction, which is science fiction and fantasy most of the time. You can head over to my bio if you want to know all the official and regular things about me, or my books page to see my published works. You can call me Em or Ema, which is what I go by around these parts.
I started writing around 2009/2010. I started writing as a child too, but as an adult I didn’t really write stories the way I did when I was younger until around 2009/2010. During that recession, I started my photography business. Back in those days I did more people photography, because I hadn’t settled into my niche as a nature and landscape photographer. But the problem with people photography is that it can be terribly seasonal. While weddings, headshots, and family portraits can happen any time of the year, it’s always skewed more towards the warmer months, so I’d be very busy in warmer months or around holidays. In the time between I worked on my house, and painting and tiling is meditative. I thought a lot about what I wanted to read and how I would write it.
So I did. I wrote a lot then, and I answered some calls for submissions. My first published story was sold in 2013 and published in 2014 by Eggplant Productions. It took me a while to find my voice as a writer.
In 2015 I moved across the country to be closer to family. After moving, I was able to pivot my photography business and realized that my knees and I did not love the marathon of wedding photography any more. I also came to the conclusion that I really wanted to get more work published. In 2016 three more short stories were published, and in 2017 I had my first set of photos published in a magazine.
And then nothing else was published for a good long while.
My life took a turn at the end of 2016 when my mom was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She died in January 2017. I spent the whole rest of 2017 in a fog. I volunteered. I painted a little. Sometimes I designed fabric. I wrote things, but nothing was published. As anyone that who’s dealt with grief can understand how hard it can hit you.
I kept busy during that time. In 2017 I joined my chapter of Sisters In Crime, and joined the board the following year. I did a lot of learning too, working on my craft, trying to get better at everything. There was no webinar or workshop that didn’t offer me something, and I made sure to try them all. During this time, I read widely, and waded through heartbreak and waited.
When the words came back in a meaningful way, I started writing again. I tightened up what I wanted to write and started to bring back some passion projects. I’m still finding good stories I started years ago when I first started writing and hit a wall. Nothing’s been wasted, I’m telling you! I’ve got a lot of work to do! I’m grateful to have the chance to share and keep working.